Armageddon
| rarity = Very Rare | type = Global Enchantment | casting_cost = | upkeep_cost = | research_cost = | effects = Every turn, a random number of Volcanoes are created somewhere in the world. Volcanoes provide no or other bonuses to nearby towns. Each Volcano raised by this spell provides to Armageddon's caster. Tiles in the catchment areas around towns belonging to Armageddon's caster are unaffected by the spell. The Unrest-quelling effects of buildings in all enemy towns are nullified. Unrest in all enemy towns further rises by 2'. }} Armageddon is a Very Rare Global Enchantment belonging to the realm, is the most expensive spell in that realm, and easily one of the most powerful Global Enchantments in the game. For this spell may be cast on the overland map to begin raising Volcanoes at random locations around the map. Each Volcano raised by this spell will increase the caster's Power by . A Volcano tile does not provide any or other bonuses to nearby towns. The spell will not raise Volcanoes near the caster's own towns. Armageddon requires a very high Upkeep Cost of per turn to remain in operation. However, due to the significant increase in each turn, the spell can easily begin paying its own Upkeep Costs within a few turns, and can repay its entire initial Casting Cost very quickly. Effects After Armageddon is cast, at the start of each and every turn the spell will raise a random number of Volcanoes at various locations around the overland map. Each Volcano created in this way will empower Armageddon's caster, and deprive nearby towns of their sources and other bonuses. Also, all rival empires will experience a sharp rise in Unrest while this spell is in effect. Random Volcano Creation At the start of each turn, the game will roll a random number between 3 and 6 to determine how many Volcanoes will be raised on the overland map. The game then randomly chooses a number of overland tiles in which to raise these Volcanoes. Note that some tiles will never be chosen: * Ocean, Shore, River and River Mouth tiles are not valid. * Tiles containing a Node are not valid. * Tiles within the catchment area of one of Armageddon's caster's towns are not valid. Any other tile, on ''either Plane, may be targeted by the spell. This includes tiles containing Towns, Minerals, Encounter zones, and so forth. Power Bonus Each Volcano raised by Armageddon increases the casting wizard's Power by . This extra power can be invested into generation, Research, or increasing the wizard's Spell Skill, just like Power acquired from any other source. If all this extra Power is invested into generation, by about the 6th to 8th turn the Volcanoes will actually be paying the spell's Upkeep Cost, thus having a net upkeep cost of 0 for Armageddon. Additional Volcanoes will then give a net profit. Within 20-30 turns of casting Armageddon, you will have regained all the spent on casting the spell (again assuming that all the extra Power is used to generate Mana). A Volcano will only provide while it remains on the map. Several spells can remove Volcanos (turning them back into other types of land), thus removing this bonus. Also after a while volcanos will turn into ordinary mountains and will no longer provide the caster with mana. Armaggedon reaches break even after a few dozens of turns. You can expect it to add 200 to 300 to your power base until both planes are consumed by it. Tile Destruction A Volcano produces no , and does not bestow any bonuses for nearby towns. Therefore, when a Volcano emerges within a town's catchment area (the roughly 5x5 tile area centered around the town, minus the corners) it will effectively deprive the town of some of its resource output. As a result, towns may get a reduction to their Maximum Populations, create less for their empire, and experience a drop in . Furthermore, a Volcano emerging in a tile will destroy any Mineral in that tile (if there was one). Encounter zones are never destroyed when a Volcano erupts beneath them. Since Nodes cannot even be targeted by the spell, they will never be destroyed or altered. Town Building Destruction As per the Raise Volcano spell, it is assumed that any new Volcano raised by Armageddon in the same tile as a town will have some chance to destroy one or more of that town's Buildings. If the rules for Raise Volcano are the same here, then each Town Building in that town has a 15% chance of being destroyed. In other words, the town will lose about 15% of its buildings, on average. Rival Rebellions While Armageddon is in play, all Towns across the map except the caster's own will experience a potentially massive increase in Unrest - turning many citizens into Rebels. According to the Official Strategy Guide, Armageddon was supposed to cause exactly '''2 additional citizens in each rival Town to go Rebel. However, in the latest official game version, this spell also cancels the pacifying effects of Shrines, Temples, Parthenons, and Cathedrals, as well as the Animists' Guild and Oracle. So, developed cities will suffer even more. For example, in a city with a Cathedral, the amount of additional Rebels will increase to 6, assuming that no Unrest reducing effect manages to offset this. The Great Wasting spell does not exert a cumulative effect with Armageddon. If both spells are in effect, only Armageddon's +2 Unrest is counted. Multiple Armageddons do not stack in this regard either. As a result of this, all other empires will have to either accept the reduced production and reserves, or dramatically reduce their Tax Rate to quell the population (thus reducing income as well). This blow to all rivals' economies further increases the advantage gained by Armageddon's caster. Volcanos Reverting to Mountains Before patch 1.3, Armageddon was considered almost a game-breaker: As long as it remained in play, the world would continue to be covered with more and more volcanoes, and the caster's power would grow to unbeatable levels. To fix this, Simtex added a mechanism in patch 1.3 that simply reverts a few existing Volcanoes back to Mountains every turn. At the start of each turn, each and every Volcano on the map rolls a random number between 1 and 100. Any volcano that rolls 1 or 2 (a 2% chance) will degrade to a Mountain. Therefore, if the world map contains 50 Volcanoes at the start of a turn, one will revert to a Mountain (statistically). As a result, at some point during Armageddon's operation, an equilibrium is reached where the number of volcanoes created each turn corresponds roughly to the number of volcanoes turning back into Mountains. When this happens, the caster's Power will cease to increase, and will instead fluctuate up and down each turn but remain at roughly the same amount overall. The equilibrium seems to be reached after about 150-200 Volcanoes have been created by the spell. Therefore, do not expect Armageddon to infinitely continue increasing your Power, nor to render each and every enemy city completely uninhabitable - there is a peak and it will eventually be reached. Nonetheless, by that point you will already have roughly , and can thus effortlessly keep Armageddon going - maintaining this high bonus by creating new Volcanoes to replace the degrading ones - and with lots of extra Power to spare. There is also a downside to the degrading effect: when a Volcano reverts to a Mountain it also has a 5% chance of creating a new Mineral there. Of course, since the rising Volcanoes themselves will destroy any Minerals in their tiles, this comes down to an overall decrease in Minerals across the world, but may still confer unexpected bonuses to your rivals once in a while. Usage Armageddon may be cast only on the overland map, for the very high Casting Cost of . It will only start raising new Volcanoes at the start of the next turn, and will keep doing so each and every turn after that. To maintain Armageddon, an Upkeep Cost of must be paid at the start of each turn. If there is insufficient in the caster's Mana Pool to pay for this spell, it will automatically dissipate. As explained above, Armageddon will begin paying for itself rather quickly, assuming you put the extra Power into generation. After casting Armageddon, its name will appear on the "Overland Enchantments" list in the Magic menu. The color in which the name is printed indicates which wizard controls the spell. If the player controls the spell, he or she may cancel it manually by clicking the name of the spell. The primary reason to do this would be in order to remove the spell's Upkeep Cost, thus conserving for other spells. The game tracks Power income from Volcanoes separately from the spell. Therefore, even if Armageddon is canceled or dispelled, existing Volcanoes will continue providing a Power bonus as long as they remain on the map. Again, in patch 1.31 each Volcano has a small chance of reverting into a Mountain at the start of each turn, so if Armageddon is removed you will eventually feel a drop in Power. It's therefore important to try and keep Armageddon running constantly. If two different Wizards have Armageddon in play at the same time, the game tracks exactly which Volcanoes provide power to which wizard. In other words, Volcanoes created by rival wizards do not add to your Power, and vice versa. Acquisition As a Very Rare spell, Armageddon may become available to any Wizard who possesses at least Spellbooks. However, its availability during the game is not guaranteed unless the Wizard acquires at least Spellbooks. Armageddon may not be acquired at the start of the campaign regardless of how many Spellbooks the wizard possesses. It must either be Researched during the game, or acquired through other means. Wizards with to Spellbooks have a random chance of being able to Research Armageddon during the game. The chance for this spell to appear for research increases with the number of Spellbooks the Wizard possesses or obtains during gameplay. With or Spellbooks, the spell is guaranteed to appear for Research at some point, if it is not already available for casting. Armageddon has a base Research Cost of . This is the highest Research Cost of any spells. With at least Spellbooks, the Armageddon spell may be acquired as a reward for winning encounters in creature Lairs, Towers, et cetera, or when conquering the Fortress of a rival wizard who has already researched this spell. Strategy Armageddon is by far one of the most powerful spells you can cast. If you can afford to cast it at all, it is often best to do it as soon as possible. The increase to your Power will quickly give you an advantage that other wizards may have trouble matching - especially because their own empires degrade due to the rising Volcanoes destroying their habitable lands. Note of course that the very act of casting Armageddon will upset each and every rival wizards - almost as much as the Spell of Mastery does. Therefore, expect to ignite open conflict with all your rivals simultaneously when casting this spell. Naturally, by the time you become able to cast it, it's likely that you are already at war with most of your rivals, but even amiable relationships will turn sour as a result of this spell. Once Armageddon is cast, remember to try to keep it in play all the time. If it gets dispelled, re-cast it immediately. This will help you maintain your high Power bonus, as Volcanoes revert back to Mountains over time. If a rival wizard casts Armageddon, Disjunct it immediately or find some other way to stop the spell. Otherwise your empire will quickly degrade, and may be difficult to maintain. Known Bugs Additionally to increasing Unrest level by 2 in every enemy Town, Armageddon will also cancel the pacifying effect of Town Buildings in those Settlements. This means that Shrines, Temples, Parthenons, Cathedrals, Animists' Guilds and Oracles will not reduce Unrest level in enemy Towns as long as Armageddon is in effect (same is true for ). This is changed in the unofficial patch 1.40, albeit at the cost of making multiple Armageddons cumulative both with each other, and any active enchantments (which also stack). Raising a Volcano will not change the movement costs of the affected tile. This means that ground units need the same amount of to enter a tile as before the Terrain was changed. For example, a unit just needs point to enter a former Grassland tile; or a unit just needs point to enter a former Forest tile; or a unit just needs point to enter a former Swamp tile. Category:Global Enchantments Category:Chaos